Much is said about them, some good, some pretty bad. But it seems inevitable that law school rankings will continue to be a source of information for those evaluating law schools. If you’re wondering about all the different lists out there that rank law schools, you’ll want to check out our new show, Law School Rankings: What Do the Numbers Mean? Whether rankings really say anything about the quality of legal education is an open question, but the fact is, they are used by students looking for the school that fits them best and by some employers deciding which law school students and graduates to recruit.
In this show, we hear from Robert Morse, Director of Data Research for U.S. News & World Report’s, Best Law Schools, Robert Franek, Senior Vice President and Publisher, The Princeton Review’s The Best 172 Law Schools, Brian Dalton, Managing Editor, Vault.com’s Top 25 Law Schools and Don Macaulay, President and Founder, AdmissionsDean.com. We explore the methodology that puts schools at the top of each and what’s new in the world of rankings.
Our experts say that rankings can be a great tool for researching law schools, once someone has a better understanding of the methodologies and criteria used to develop rankings. AdmissionsDean.com’s Founder and President, Don Macaulay explained why it’s important to understand the methodology behind each ranking when interpreting them. “My belief of what students should look at in the rankings, is again, an understanding that the ranking should only mean something to you if you buy into the underlying methodology, that whatever ranking body is used to create the rankings is something that you ascribe to. So if you believe that certain data points identically matches your beliefs in terms of how to rank a school or what’s important in terms of ranking a school, then I think they’re great.”
Our guests help shed some light on how the different lists and rankings are formulated, what they mean and how they might be helpful in evaluating law schools. Tune into the full show to hear more!